One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese

Tastes like beef Chilli Con Carne – with the added cheesy goodness of Mac ‘n Cheese! My One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese is on the table in just over 20 minutes. It’s truly fabulously delicious!

I’ve seen plenty of food mash ups in my travels on the world-wide-web. It seems like there is a pizza-everything: tacos, casserole, dips, soup, pie, pasta, cake. You name it, I bet there’s a pizza-flavoured version of it floating around on the internet.

I’m not above doing mash ups. I’ll do them when combining two recipes brings something else to the dish, rather than doing them just for the sake of being “cool” or “out there”. I’m beyond the years of playing with food for the sake of being cool, I just want it to be tasty!

Enter – One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese. A cross between Chili Con Carne and Mac and Cheese, all made in one pot. The sauce flavour is like beef Chilli Con Carne, with the addition of macaroni and cheesy goodness stirred into it as well as on top. SO GOOD.

In America, you’ll find most Chili’s are made using a generous amount of what America calls Chili Powder. In actual fact, American Chili Powder is made with more than just ground chilis. It has other flavourings in it, so it’s more like a seasoning than a plain spice.

Because American Chili Powder isn’t sold here in Australia, and also because I have noticed that the flavour and saltiness of American Chili Powder varies from brand to brand, I like to make my Chili using a homemade mix of spices. I can control the flavour better for my own palette, and also more consistency of flavour for those who use my recipes. 🙂

At the time this post goes live, I’ll be in Tasmania. I’m here with the wonderful folk from Huon Aquaculture, harvesters of the freshest and best salmon in Australia. Long term readers know that I am quite selective about companies I work with, hence why you don’t often see “big brands” that you’d be well familiar with. I don’t care how big the company is, if it’s not something I use or that I’m a fan of, I won’t do work for them. It’s not that I’m being snobby (c’mon, this is the gal who’s confessed to more than her fair share of Dirty Food secrets!), it’s just that I cannot bring myself to promote products on my blog (it’s miiine!!!!) that I don’t already use myself or a story that connects with me that I want to share with you.

Like the beautiful Groves Family in Queensland, mango growers who I met through a job and have become dear friends. The Balog Family in the Southern Highlands, who handcraft their own Bee Mead (sparkling honey cider!!). Just Veg, the wives of carrot growers in Queensland who found a way to repurpose “ugly but perfect” carrots that would otherwise be wasted.

For all these Australian producers, one thing that has always struck me is how incredibly proud they are of what they produce. How hard they work, the attention to detail. These are the products I am a fan of – because they are, quite simply, the best.

And these are the sort of people I love working with, who I love talking about on my blog. And I cannot wait to tell you more about the Huon Salmon family in the coming weeks. This trip has been an eye opener!!! – Nagi xx

PS Err, sorry, got distracted. Just one more point on this One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese – Down Under here in Australia, we spell “Chili” with two l’s – Chilli. Also, it’s more commonly referred to as Chilli Con Carne, and no one knows whether it’s pronounced “Carneeeeeeee” or just “Carne”. To keep life simple, I chose to stick with one “L”. 😁

5 from 25 votes

Print

One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese

Prep Time

5mins

Cook Time

15mins

Total Time

20mins

A homemade Chili with the addition of macaroni and cheese = Chili Mac ‘n Cheese! This is terrifically moorish and a fabulous one pot meal. Super quick too! The key with this recipe is to turn the stove off as soon as the pasta is just cooked - it will keep cooking in the residual heat. Recipe VIDEO below.

Heat oil in large pot over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook for 1 minute. Then add capsicum and cook until onion is translucent.

Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go.

Once the beef turns from red to brown, add remaining ingredients except cheese. Stir, bring to simmer, then turn the heat down to medium. Cover and cook for 10 - 12 minutes or until the macaroni is al dente, meaning just cooked, still a tiny bit on the firm side.

Turn the stove OFF but leave the pot on the stove. Stir through half the cheese – it should be a bit saucy. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Top with remaining cheese, put the lid back on and leave until the cheese melts - about 2 minutes.

Sprinkle with coriander, if desired, and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

1. Chili Powder: In Australia, UK and most parts of the world, ground chilli (aka "chilli powder") is plain dried chillies that have been ground. However, in the US, Chilli Powder has other things in it so it is nowhere near as hot as pure Chilli powder. This recipe calls for pure ground chilli for spiciness. Cayenne pepper is a perfect substitute, or any other HOT chilli powder. Chili is supposed to be spicy!!!

2. TIP: The key with this recipe is to turn the stove OFF as soon as the pasta is just cooked. The pasta will keep cooking when you put the lid on to melt the cheese. Don't worry if it's still saucy - saucey is GOOD!!! Plus sauce always gets sucked up by pasta so there will be less by the time you serve it.

3. OTHER PROTEINS: This recipe will also work other minced meat, including chicken, pork, turkey and even lamb!

Related

Comments

Great dish! Made it for my boys who were heading to the coast for a week as an easy thing to have in the fridge and pull out a serve at a time – breakfast, lunch or dinner. I got a text last night “excellent pasta mum”. Thanks Nagi, another wonderful, easy meal to add to my repertoire.

This recipe is the closest I have ever found to my own recipe. I leave out the bell peppers because I cannot digest them. I add a but if sugar to cut the acidity (and because we in the South use sugar in most everything) and just use chili powder since I don’t want it too spicy. Otherwise, spot on. We love it! Serve with some cornbread and you are all set.

I didn’t want to go shopping so I had to make a couple of minor substitutes. Green not red bell pepper and bowtie pasta. I also used shredded pork butt because it was left over from a spicy Korean pork adventure. This has a very, very nice Tex-Mex chili flavor with the wonderful seasonings and just a hint of beans and tomatoes. I’ll be making this again. Thanks for a delicious spin on a great one pot meal.

This is the first recipe of yours I have made and it taste very good. I have actually made this twice in the past two weeks. All your recipes look so good and I can’t wait to try more. Shredded Beef Chili Con Carne is up next.

My family and I loved this recipe! Thank you! The only thing I added was a T of sugar because my 92year old mother always said when you use canned tomatoes (which she canned herself) always add a bit of sugar. We love the pics and stories about Dozer. We had a golden mix as well,they are the best!

I made a few adjustments- our cayenne pepper is super spicy so I just added 1/8 tsp. I added fresh chilis as well as powder Chilli seasoning and doubled all amounts of spices. I only had 1/2 cup of cheddar so I threw in a nob of cream cheese and feta cheese as well. Omg- delicious!!! Even my son who accused me of “ruining mac n’ cheese with chili” said it was delish. My elderly parents ate some next day and they said it was delicious and denture friendly. Thank you, Nagi- san!!

Tried this recipe tonight for dinner. It was quick and delicious. I used black beans cuz it’s what I had and my husband likes it more saucy so I added a 24oz can of Hunt’s spaghetti sauce just before adding the cheese. I will be making this again for sure.

The BF recently commented on my chili that it ‘lacks flavour’ (!! the cheek of him!! – though maybe I need to look for another chilli recipe – I’ll go through your archive in a hope!) so I was sceptical about this. Totally unreasonably. Made it last night in about a half an hour and it was fecking amazing. This is so going onto the list of the want-tasty-comfort-food-but-not-a-takeout-in-less-than-an-hour recipes!!

I made this night before last. My husband said it was a little spicy-he does NOT like spicy food. I had it again yesterday, and he loved it! He said the spiciness mellowed out. He had it for lunch AND dinner!! Big hit, thank you for another wonderful recipe!!

Tried your recipe Chilli Mac and Cheese last night and we all loved it. Full of flavour. My son and his two kids
loved the taste and ate the left overs for breakfast next day and I had some for lunch to take to work too.
Thank you for sharing and taking the time to present it so well for us to follow.

Hi Nagi
I love your recipes. Always full of flavour. This week I have made your pumpkin feta salad and last night I made chilli Mac and cheese. Both complete hits with my adult sons partner and girlfriends.
In fact one son has just had the leftovers for breakfast!! Thank you for your inspiration.
Oh another favourite is Thai beef salad. So authentic.